The graduate creative writing program at Boston University (BU) recently received two million dollars from Robert Hildreth, chair of the university’s board of overseers. The gift will fund the one-year program’s recently established Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship Fund, which sends students abroad following graduation, and the Leslie Epstein International Visiting Professorship, which brings notable writers to the university to mentor MFA students.

"Bob Hildreth’s generous donation reflects his much appreciated support of the arts at BU and his desire to reinforce the global exchange of ideas among faculty and students," said BU president Robert A. Brown. "We are very grateful for his gift, which elevates the university’s commitment to engagement with the world, while acknowledging the long-standing and remarkable contributions of outstanding faculty."

Hildreth has also asked alumni to mobilize to raise an additional one million dollars for the program, whose faculty includes National Book Award winner Ha Jin, Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Glück, and former U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky. In addition to offering degrees in poetry, fiction, and playwriting, the program publishes the literary magazine Agni and operates the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.